March 20th, 2016

Spelt Brioche

Dinkelbrioche (3)Here is –as I promised – the first spelt recipe (of hopefully many more). It is a variation of my brioche recipe, but with more egg yolk and a little water roux to increase the amount of liquid in the dough. A sweet starter adds flavour and helps a good rise.

When kneading to full gluten development, you have to keep a close eye on the dough, as spelt tends to be easily over kneaded. Especially when you use a new batch of flour it is a good idea to do a window pane test in between to test how far the gluten is already developed. It depends on the spelt variety, but perfect gluten development can be less then 30 seconds away from overkneaded .

But if you keep this in mind, then you will have a perfect light and fluffy dinkel brioche for breakfast on sunday morning!

 

Continue reading

March 16th, 2016

Lemon Raspberry Macarons

Zitronen-Himbeer-Macarons (1)A day off should to be spent considered. And this a dear friend and me did last week. As my friend is as much passionated about baking as I am we decided to to a macaron marathon to compare two different recipes. One was the recipe of Pierre Hermè that I baked two weeks ago and the other one my friend get of the French grandmother of a friend.

Both recipes differs a lot from each other: the Hermé recipe contains more sugar and is made with an italian meringue. This makes the recipe more complicated, but it yields great macarons as well. The grandmothers recipe is very easy to prepare, but we struggeled with runny dough, cracks in the macaron shell and problems with the right baking time. Non of this happend with the Hermé recipe, we baked about 120 macaron shells with that recipe and each of them was perfect! And while the last time I pipe the macarons “free style” this time we used a template we place below the baking paper, so the macarons look now as similar as peas in a pod.

The macarons have a core of lemon curd which is surrounded by a dark pink ganache. The combination of lemon and raspberries is always a dream and the slight tartness of the fruits is the perfect contrast to the sweet shells! A beautiful and delicious treat! Continue reading

March 13th, 2016

Tumeric Loaf

Kurkuma-Laib (4)Bright yellow like the sun shines the tumeric loaf on my kitchen counter. And its good that it shines so bright as spring seems to be far away.

It was the first time in my live that I used fresh tumeric. I got very exited when I saw the rhizomes in our small wholefood shop and bought some directly. And while I packed them in my bag I already saw the bread I was going to bake with some  of them. Continue reading

March 12th, 2016

Ludwig & Jean

Ludwig und Jean BurgerDid you wonder why there was no bread recipe last week? There is a reason as I spent one week in munich, baking and optimising recipes with the team of Ludwig & Jean which I developed for them.

The mail with the question, if I could create recipes for their organic burger and pizza bisto, reached me already back in November. After some long phone calls I knew what they wanted and I knew that I wanted to this! The recipes were challenging as they has to be made with pure spelt flour and only with wild yeast. Plus they had to be vegan so that the same buns can be used for burgers with meat and for vegetarian and vegan variants.

 

All January and February I was test baking and recipe tweaking intensely. With a spelt variant of my sweet starter the burger and pizza get a very complex, deep flavour. Not only the Pizza but the Burger buns as well benefit from a long, cold proof in the fridge. They are made following my principle that a good bun (or pizza) needs time – which is the same principle the guys from Ludwig and Jean follow!

And as I spent the last month thinking a lot about spelt there are some recipes for you coming soon as well – but there will be no pizza or burger buns as my love asked for a break to recover after all the test eating he had to do  in the past weeks 🙂 So you have to visit Ludwig and Jean if you want to try the buns or the pizza. You can find them here:

Ludwig und Jean
Guardinistraße 6
81375 München

Ludwig und Jean

March 4th, 2016

Macaron Orange

Macaron (1)For this I have to blame Eva. She was so enthusastic about the new Book of Pierre Hermè that even I – who never was tempted by macarons before – started to think about baking them. I made a suggestion in the city library of cologne to buy the book and they did it immediately. Maybe they were tempted by Hermés Macarons as well?

After baking Berliner for carnival, I had a lot of leftover egg white. And as Eva promised, the recipe is not hard to follow if you have already a bit pastry experience. And it works perfectly for me, even as Macaron Newbie I got macorns with “feets”.

For the filling, I decided to go astray from Hermès Recipe as I had some pomeranz juice sitting in the fridge and knew from experience that a curd made from this is incredible delicious. And the fruity tartness with the subtle bitter flavour harmonize very well with sweetness of the macaron.

 

Continue reading

February 27th, 2016

Walnut & Porridge Bread

Walnuss und Hafergrütz-Brot (1)Whenever we spent our vacation in nothern Germany, I have to buy something I have troubles to find in the Rhineland: Steel cut oats! I like them very much, not for the kale stew like it is typical in North Germany, but for making porridge or baking bread. A porridge is such a good addition to a bread, adding some bite and a good deal of moisture and helping to keep the bread fresh for a long time. Especially for spelt bread it is a good addition as spelt has the tendency to bake dry without added soaker.

The bread I baked last week contains the trio of spelt, oat and walnuts. All three are somehow nutty flavoured and it feels natural to me to combine all of them in a bread. The preferment is a whole spelt sourdough which I grow over to stages to contain the mild lactic acid flavour I love so much. And the combination of joghurt-like notes of the sourdough and the nutty flavours of the grain and the nut makes this bread to one these I enjoy most plain or just with some butter and sprinkles of salt flakes. A clear favourite of mine!

 

Continue reading

February 21st, 2016

Leftover Bread

Restel-Brot (1)Sometimes, the best bread happens rather unplanned. Like this bread, which is a kind of a left over bread. It started when I was thinking about what to do with the remaining part of the “aromastück” I prepared when baking the “Irländer”. In the fridge was a big batch of sweet starter  waiting to be fed, but it was to much to feed the whole amount, so using part of the unfed starter was needed, too. And in my flour cabinet I had nearly empty bag with rye, spelt and wheat flour. So why not combining everything to bake a bread?

The result is a classic every day bread with a soft crumb. The Aromastück adds a nice malty note and helps to keep it fresh for a long time while the unfed sweet starter adds subtle flavour notes that adds complexity to the aroma. A truly delicious bread that makes me think about new experiments with the aromastück.

 

Continue reading

February 13th, 2016

Irländer

Irländer (1)

Oliver asked in December if I had a recipe for a aromatic bread with 90% rye. The orignal bread named “Irländer” is a whole grain bread baked with sourdough only and is originated in Mannheim. As I easily get stomach problems when eating to much rye, I always need someone to share a rye bread with. And so it took some time until a weekend I know that I would see my parents and my sister. Shared with three, the amount of rye bread left for me is perfectly 🙂

This bread has a moist crump and stays fresh for a long time. A so called “aroma stück” and sourdough makes the bread aromatic and the “aroma stück” buffers the acid peaks of the sourdough very well. A very harmonic bread.

 

Continue reading

February 8th, 2016

Twin Bread

Zwillingsbrot (1)I had a nice email exchange with a reader some time ago. She just had started her own sourdough starter and had some questions about it. One was how to replace the bought dried sourdough with her own one. She mailed me the recipe and I adjust it so that it is sole leavend by sourdough. To ensure that the sourdough is strong enough, it is fed twice. I although added a soaker for seeds, to ensure they can take up enough water. As I changed much of the handling as well, add the end there are just the same ingredients but a complete different recipe. But it is worth while as it yields an aromatic, moist bread with a well balanced mild soudough flavour.

As the bread is bake as two loaves set next to each other it is a great bread to be shared with friends. A Bread where one half looks like a twin of the other half. A real ”twin bread”!

 

Continue reading

February 7th, 2016

Spelt-Berliner

Dinkel-Berliner (2)

There is only one reason to spent carnival Sunday not thinking about the best hiding place: my nice and my nephew. As we invited them to  watch the children carnival parade in our little town with us, I even bought some paper streamers and baked some “Amerikaner” (german version of black and white cookies) and Berliner. That is as close as I will ever  come to celebrating carnival.

This years Berliner are made with spelt flour and get their good flavour from a biga, which helps to build a strong gluten network, too. For a bit more moisture I added a water roux and like last year I have again a good amount of egg yolk in the dough, which helps to create a tender crump. And as Berliner a for me the best part of carnival, I wish you a good time during the “crazy days”: Alaaf!

 

Continue reading